BOOK REVIEW: HORROR UNMASKED by Brad Weissmann
BOOK REVIEW: HORROR UNMASKED by Brad Weissmann
Murdoch books via Becker Meyer, September 2023
Hardback, rrp AUD$39.99
Reviewed by Shane Pinnegar
90%
Brad Weissman presents an impressive overview of horror on film in this exhaustively thorough tome, starting with the silent movie era (including 1896’s The Haunted Castle aka The House Of The Devil, 1920’s The Cabinet of Dr Caligari and the most famous early horror movie of them all, 1922’s Nosferatu), all the way up to the 2020’s (2018’s Hereditary, 2020’s Gretel & Hansel, 2022’s X and M3GAN from 2023 all crack a mention).
Along the way there are welcome explorations of world horror cinema – Italian, Spanish, J- and K-horror – an exploration of ‘The Problem of Torture Porn’, and an analysis of how legitimate horror really is in a cinematic sense. And photos – so many lurid, glossy colour photos that you simply cannot help but get a sense of all the mayhem and murder and evil going on – it’s a most tactile experience for the glassyballs.
It adds up to a thoughtful overview of an intricate subject tackled with passion and insight by someone who really knows his stuff – and there are many, many obscure gems mentioned for the keen to research further, no matter what our personal horror movie tastes may be.
Highly recommended.
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Category: Book Reviews